The Gunpowder Plot of 1605

In November 1605, the infamous Gunpowder Plot took place
in which some Catholics, most famously Guy Fawkes,
plotted to blow up James I,
the first of the Stuart kings of England. The
story is remembered each November 5th when ‘Guys’ are burned in a
celebration known as "Bonfire Night".

The story appears to be very simple.

Catholics in England had expected James to
be more tolerant of them. In fact, he had proved to be the opposite and had
ordered all Catholic priests to leave England. This so angered some Catholics
that they decided to kill James and put his daughter Elizabeth on the throne
ensuring that she was a Catholic. This led to a plot to kill not only the king
of England, James, but also everyone sitting in the Houses of Parliament at the
same time as James was there when he opened Parliament on November 5th, 1605.

Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators, having rented out
a house right by the Houses of Parliament, managed to get 36 barrels of
gunpowder into a cellar of the House of Lords.

The other conspirators were:

Robert and Thomas Wintour,
Thomas Percy,
Christopher and John Wright,
Francis Tresham,
Everard
Digby,
Ambrose Rookwood,
Thomas Bates,
Robert Keyes,
Hugh Owen,
John Grant and the man who is said to have organised the whole plot
Robert Catesby.

The most famous picture of some
the
conspirators

The explosive expert, Guy Fawkes, had been left in the
cellars to set off the fuse. He was only caught when a group of guards
decided to check the cellars at the last moment.

Fawkes was arrested and sent to the Tower of London where
he was tortured and eventually gave away the names of the fellow conspirators.

Sir William Wade, Lieutenant of the Tower, had orders to
use whatever means of torture was required to get information from Fawkes.
The order came from James.

Of those involved, some were shot as they were chased by the
law such as Percy and Catesby. Others were captured, sent to the Tower and,
after a brief trial, eventually hung,
drawn and quartered, with Fawkes, in January 1606.

The signature of Guy Fawkes on
his confession

In celebration of his survival, James
ordered that the people of England should have a great bonfire in the night on
November 5th. This fire was traditionally topped off with an effigy
of the pope rather than Guy Fawkes. His place at the top of the fire came in
later as did fireworks. The East Sussex county town of Lewes still has the pope
alongside Guy Fawkes when it comes to the effigies being burned.

But is there more to this plot than just a small number of
angry Catholics wanting to make a statement against the king, James?
Some believe that the whole plot was a government conspiracy to convince James
that Catholics could not be trusted. At the very least, some curious things
happened when the story is looked at in detail.

What is odd?

We do know that James’ chief
minister, Robert Cecil, the Earl of Salisbury, hated Catholics and saw them as a constant source of
trouble. Cecil also feared that there was a chance that James would be
lenient with them during his reign and this he could not tolerate.

That James only expelled priests
was not good enough for Cecil. He wanted to remove Catholicism from England as he saw it as a threat.

We know that James was terrified
of a violent death; his childhood in Scotland had been fraught with danger
including being kidnapped as a boy. What better way to get James to severely
persecute the Catholics in England than to get him to believe that they had
tried to kill him in this very violent manner?

The government had a monopoly on gunpowder in this
country and it was stored in places like the Tower of London. How did the conspirators get
hold of 36 barrels of gunpowder without drawing attention to themselves? Did
they get help from the government?

How was the gunpowder moved across London from the Tower
of London to Westminster (at least two miles distant) without anyone seeing it?
The River Thames would not have been used as it could have lead to the gunpowder
becoming damp and useless. Thirty six barrels would have been a sizeable
quantity to move without causing suspicion.

Why were men who were known to be Catholics allowed to
rent out a house so near to the Houses of Parliament? How did they move 36
barrels from that house to the cellar of the Houses of Parliament without anyone
noticing along with hay, straw etc?

Why, for the first time in history, was there a search of
Parliament's cellars that conveniently found "John Johnson" (as Guy
Fawkes called himself) before he lit the fuse?

Why was the soldier who killed Catesby and Percy at
Holbeech House in the Midlands, given such a large pension for life (10p a day
for life) when their
arrest and torture was more desirable so that the names of any other
conspirators might be found out?

Some historians have pointed out these issues and claimed
that the plotters were pawns in the hands of Robert Cecil and that he
orchestrated the whole affair in his bid to get James
to ban Catholics altogether.

There are, however, counter-arguments to many of the above points.

Gunpowder may have been a government monopoly but just as
today, there was a black market for it. The conspirators would have had the
money to pay for this and it could have been smuggled in from Catholic France,
for example. The south coast was riddled with smugglers havens. Fawkes
could have used his contacts with Spain to acquire it. In many senses, this
would not have been a difficult problem.

Moving the gunpowder from the Tower to Westminster could
have been done over a number of days, barrel by barrel, journey by journey. This
would have attracted less attention though it did increase the chance of being
caught as more journeys were being made. One theory put forward is that it was
stored at a house owned by Catesby in Lambeth and moved barrel by barrel up the
Thames at night to Westminster. dangerous and risky but the conspirators were
motivated men and it could have happened.

The conspirators used false names so hiring out property
near to the Houses of Parliament would not have been that difficult. Thomas
Percy had contacts in Parliament and these were almost certainly used to get the
house there and later the cellar where the gunpowder was actually put.

The soldier who shot Percy and Catesby was in a firefight
in which he may have been shot and killed himself. Why risk your own life
against such desperate people? Was the 10p a day for life merely a generous
reward for services to a grateful king?

Also, if Fawkes and company had been set-up by, why did he
not say so at his execution when he could have said something? Possibly he was
not in a fit enough state to say anything; also who would have believed him as
he had been castigated as the evil conspirator to kill the king? It may be that
the conspirators simply acted alone and then got caught.

The confession of Fawkes does
not mention at all any claim that he was a dupe of the government. He himself
stated that he was first approached by Thomas Wintour in Europe about the plot
in 1604 and that he met the others when he returned to London.

The only full confession about the plot from start to
finish came from Thomas Wintour. He, too, makes no mention about being set-up
etc.

Two issues do cloud the story, however.

The first is the so-called Monteagle Letter.

One of the plotters was a man called Francis Tresham. Lord
Monteagle was his cousin.

On the evening of October 26th, a
mysterious man brought a letter to Monteagle’s home just outside of London. The letter was
a clear warning for Monteagle not to turn up at the Houses of Parliament on the
5th November. In modern English the letter stated that Parliament
would receive a terrible blow on that day and that those killed would not see
who had done it to them. The letter was addressed to Monteagle but it was read
out aloud by his servant. Why? Was Monteagle looking for a witness that he had
received this letter?

Monteagle went straight to Robert Cecil and informed him
of what had happened. Cecil ordered a search of the cellars of Parliament on the
night of November 4th. Those guards found Guy
Fawkes. A second search the next day, ordered by James I, also found the
explosives and Guy who was found to be in possession of matches. he was
arrested.

The other issue also involves Tresham.

Here was an important member of the gang who could know a
great deal about other conspirators who were not actually yet caught. Once arrested,
he was locked in the Tower of London – England’s most feared and secure
prison. Tresham was locked in a cell by himself. He died on December 23rd 1605,
and he was found to have been poisoned. How did he get the poison? Did he
knowingly take it? Or did someone want to silence him before he talked? It is
possible that Tresham had the poison on him and took it rather than suffer the
butchery of being hung, drawn and quartered. If someone else had access to him,
and fed him poisoned food or whatever, he would have been a very important
person as only the most important would have had access to this valuable
prisoner.

We may never know the answers to the questions. There are
some who support the government conspiracy line – others think it may simply
have been an ambitious plan by a small number of Catholics that went very badly wrong for them
all.